What Can the Department of Government Efficiency Do?

In between the cabinet nominations that President-elect Donald Trump announced this week was an unusual appointment: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

While Trump has not detailed how the entity will operate, he said in a statement that it would “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies” and “provide advice and guidance from outside of government.”

Conventionally, what outsiders can do in the government has been pretty limited. But with Trump and Musk both known for pushing boundaries, it’s not clear what “DOGE” will look like.

The federal code’s primary conflict-of-interest law is a big deterrent to adopting government authority. It bans government employees from participating in government matters where they have a financial stake. But it doesn’t apply to outside contractors or advisers, which could be important to Musk, whose businesses interact with many federal agencies and who would most likely be required to make divestments if he became a federal employee.

Things get complicated if an outsider acts on behalf of the government. Just saying you’re not a government employee doesn’t mean the law will treat you that way, even if you’re not paid. Acting like a government employee — for example, by managing government employees — may open the door to being charged with a felony under the conflict-of-interest law.

“What he shouldn’t do is pretend he’s not a government employee and then come in there and start running around acting like a government employee — supervising government employees, giving orders, performing the functions of a government employee,” Richard Painter, who was the principal lawyer responsible for clearing financial conflicts of interest in the George W. Bush administration, said of Musk.